Miami--When members of the National Association for Bilingual
Education gave a standing ovation to Rita Esquivel at a May 12 meeting
here, they were also applauding what they hope will be a new era of
cooperation between bilingual educators and the Education
Department.

Ms. Esquivel, who has been named director of the department's office
of bilingual education and minority-languages affairs, is one of their
own: a career educator and a nabe member who has directed federally
funded bilingual programs at the local level.

She was appointed by Secretary of Education Lauro F. Cavazos, a
Hispanic who has voiced strong support for bilingual programs, and who
chose to announce her appointment at the organization's national
conference.

It was an event that would have seemed highly improbable to many
people involved in the issue just a year ago.

"What is significant is the way this announcement was made, not just
what the Secretary said or what Rita said," said James J. Lyons, nabe's
legislative counsel for many years and its new executive director. "In
the past Administration, we were shunned and basically spat upon by
Bennett, and that helped no one."

Mr. Cavazos' predecessor, William J. Bennett, did constant battle
with bilingual educators. He denounced bilingual programs as a failure
and criticized educators for de-emphasizing the teaching of English.
Advocates had turned such efforts into "an emblem of cultural pride,"
he argued.

The last time a department official appeared at a nabe conference,
she walked off the dais in anger. Carol Pendas Whitten, the director of
obemla from 1985 to 1987, faced a barrage of criticism and pointed
questions after addressing a 1987 nabe gathering.

"I thought I was addressing a professional organization, instead of
a political-action committee," she said at the time.

Mr. Bennett and other Reagan Administration officials maintained
that they did not support any one method, but rather wanted to give
local officials the freedom to choose the type of instruction most
appropriate for their limited-English-proficient students.

The Administration sought to make "special alternative" programs,
which do not teach students in their native language, eligible for more
federal funds. Bilingual-education advocates generally oppose such
programs as ineffective.

Mr. Cavazos has supported the "flexibility" policy, but has not said
how much federal money he wants to go to special-alternative
grants.

Alicia C. Coro, who is currently acting director of obemla, said the
grants in the ongoing 1988 competition would be awarded on the basis of
"quality." But a department source said in March--and reaffirmed last
week--that some special-alternative programs are to be funded instead
of transitional-bilingual applicants that received higher review
scores. (See Education Week, March 15, 1989.)

Bilingual-education advocates also oppose a special $2-million
competition, announced in March, which they contend is biased in favor
of special-alternative applicants.

Despite continuing disagreements over such issues, advocates believe
they may eventually see a change of heart, and of policy, under Mr.
Cavazos and Ms. Esquivel, who plans to assume her new post July 1.

"I'm optimistic that for the first time, we have a proven educator,
someone who has been in the trenches and supports bilingual education,"
said Rodolfo Chavez of Arizona State University, the new president of
nabe.

"It's nice to be optimistic for once," he said, while acknowledging
that neither the Secretary nor Ms. Esquivel had overtly promised a
change in department policy.

"I'm pleased the Secretary has chosen to honor us by choosing this
association, this conference, this city to make the announcement," Mr.
Chavez said. "If he's interested in forging a partnership, he took
important steps in Miami."

Mr. Cavazos did not attend the conference, instead sending a
videotape in which he introduced Ms. Esquivel. Both his speech and the
new director's--each of which was delivered partially in
Spanish--promised continued support for local flexibility, while
hinting at solidarity with nabe members.

"We must not, out of zeal to further a cause in which we all
believe, narrow our focus to a single approach or even to a single
goal," Ms. Esquivel said. "The phrase 'bi8lingual education' still has
a variety of good meanings in the profession, and we must keep all of
these viable if we are to make significant progress."

"We must allow the rich diversity of our educational system a free
rein in trying to solve the problems of language-minority children,"
she said. "We must stop looking for the 'single right answer' and start
looking for the 'right approaches' for a given community."

Both Ms. Esquivel and Mr. Cavazos won the audience's vocal approval
by vowing to fight for the rights of limited-English-proficient
students and pledging support for retention of the students' native
languages.

"The sink-or-swim days of learning English are over and they must
never be allowed to come back," Mr. Cavazos said, to vigorous
applause.

"Students need to learn English as quickly as possible, but they
also need to learn to value their native language and heritage," he
said.

In an interview, Ms. Esquivel declined to discuss specifically the
distribution of federal funds among different types of
bilingual-education programs.

But she indicated that she sees native-language instruction as the
best option, where feasible--the position taken by most nabe
members.

"If a great number of people belong to one language group, it makes
sense to explain to that group in the language they understand," Ms.
Esquivel observed.

"I can't teach you to ride a bicycle in a language you don't
understand, because you'll fall on your face," she said, adding that it
would be much easier to explain bike-riding in a familiar tongue and
then "switch to the second language."

Ms. Esquivel said both she and Mr. Cavazos hope to change the
American public's "negative perceptions" about bilingual education.

"We'd like people to understand that what we want is for kids to
learn English, and we want them to be very good citizens of this
country," she said. "If in any way I could change the negative
perceptions, I would be very happy."

Ms. Esquivel said repeatedly that she is eager to bring her
experience as a career educator to Washington.

A native of San Antonio, Ms. Esquivel started teaching there in
1953. She has worked since 1963 for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified
School District, where she has served as a teacher and in various
administrative positions. (See Education Week, May 17, 1989.)

Ms. Esquivel has not taught bilingual-education classes. But she has
taught English to adults and has served as coordinator of the Malibu
district's federal programs, including bilingual education. She also
has earned a bilingual teaching certificate--because, she said, she
wanted the experience of taking the test.

In the interview, Ms. Esquivel exhibited warmth and humor as she
spoke openly about her excitement over her new job as "a dream come
true," her successful fight against breast cancer, and her personal
experience with bilingualism.

When she was a child in Catholic schools, she recalled, the nuns
would not allow her to study Spanish. Thus, she could speak the
language, but could not read and write it until she studied it in
college.

"It was really criminal," she said. "I had two vocabularies. I knew
all the herbs and spices in Spanish, because my grandmother taught me
to cook, but I didn't know the words for 'tennis court,' because I
played tennis in English."

Asked if it felt strange to be part of a department that had been so
much at odds with nabe, Ms. Esquivel said that things have changed.

"I work for a different secretary and a different President. I have
in-the-trenches experience; I come directly from a school district,"
she noted.

"One of the things I would really want to see, and I think it is
happening, is that both [the department and nabe] are on the same side
now," Ms. Esquivel said. "At least that's true today."

The conference appeared to bear out her contention. Every
participant questioned about Ms. Esquivel and Mr. Cavazos reacted with
praise and enthusiasm, and the new obemla chief was the center of
attention.

After her address, she nodded in apparent assent through a speech
critical of past department policy given by Ed Steinman, the lawyer who
argued for the plaintiffs in Lau v. Nichols. That 1974 case established
the right of children who do not speak English to receive special
instruction.

She also attended several other conference sessions, including the
awards banquet, where she sat at the head table--something many nabe
members said they did not think any federal official had done
before.

Ultimately, it is the feeling that she is one of them that makes
nabe members so optimistic about Ms. Esquivel.

"I have a lot of hope," said Rosa Castro Feinberg, a member of the
Dade County Board of Education. "We all have a lot of hope."

Vol. 08, Issue 35

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